Class Dojo

Check out some of the features of Class Dojo, one of my fave classroom tools!

Great Management Idea

I loved this idea from Mrs. Richardson's 2nd grade class at Bitterroot Elementary, and wanted to share with you.  She uses a Mr. Potatohead to motivate her students.  When they receive a certain number of points, they get to choose something new to add to Mr. Potatohead (she has a bucket of his "accessories").  As soon as Mr. Potatohead is put together, they will get a class prize.  I thought this was such a cute, creative idea!

I think this would also be fun to use with the digital portfolio tool Seesaw.  It could be a student job each day to take a picture of Mr. Potatohead and write/tell about him and how close he is to being "put together" so they can earn their class prize!

Gimme a Brain Break!

Gimme a break … A BRAIN break!  Research shows that taking brain breaks throughout the day facilitates student engagement and learning.  There is a wonderful article on this blog explaining brain breaks and why they are effective.  One of my favorite ways to incorporate brain breaks into my kindergarten classroom was using GoNoodle!  

GoNoodle has tons of FREE activities to help kids focus - you can choose from calming, energizing, interactive games, core aligned activities and more depending on your class needs.  Your students pick a “champ” and then earn your class champ points every time they participate.  They love this!  Here is our class’ champ, Flappy Tuckler.

This blog post has tons of ideas on how to incorporate GoNoodle into your classroom.  I also love these 5 quick ideas to start reinvigorating your students and squeezing in a few minutes of brain breaks throughout your day.

GoNoodle supports teachers with awesome resources - check out all of these free, fun printables to get your classroom GoNoodle-ified!  Ready to check it out yet?  If so, visit this link and start GoNoodling!

ClassDojo!

If you’ve never heard of ClassDojo … then you are in for a treat!  ClassDojo is an awesome classroom management/communication tool and it’s FREE!  ClassDojo allows you to easily engage students by providing immediate feedback and to keep parents in the loop.  It is super fun and can be customized to meet your classroom’s needs.

To find out more about ClassDojo, click the image below to watch a short intro video.  After watching the video, visit www.classdojo.com and you can quickly and easily set up your teacher account.

ClassDojo supports teachers by providing tools, tips and advice from other teachers on their blog.  Check out their Teacher Resources page to download a teacher info sheet, or to read about ways other teachers are using ClassDojo in their classrooms.

Here are teachers’ top tips for using ClassDojo: (click the image to download the document)

The parents in my kindergarten class LOVED being connected to their students and our classroom through ClassDojo.  It is a quick, easy and fun tool.  Give it a try!